Sacramento County is now under new public health guidelines which is changing the parameters for what events are considered "mega-events" throughout the county. Due to the rise in the Omicron Covid-19 cases, the threshold to what are considered "mega-events" have been scaled down to 500 attendees for indoor events and 5,000 attendees for outdoor events. Previously, the threshold was for 1,000 people for indoors events and 10,000 outdoors, essentially cutting the old parameters in half. This means that indoor events that are 750 people, that did not previously have to check vax status or require proof of negative tests, now have to do that.
Sacramento County Public Health officials held a briefing with media on Thursday morning to address these changes and answer questions as it would pertain to businesses and event centers in the region. This change in guidelines comes one day after the state health department announced an extension of the indoor mask mandate.
Sacramento County Public Health official Dr. Olivia Kasirye also issued another order for school boards, public boards, councils and commissions to switch back to remote and virtual meetings. She also suggests that businesses go back to a remote model for the time being as the virus spreads.
This at a time when Sacramento businesses and organizations deal with staffing shortages and a record number of call outs due to employees getting sick or being exposed to coronavirus. The 13 county run Covid testing sites are dealing with increased demand and people have been reportedly waiting over 90 minutes in lines to get tested. Earlier this week, the Sacramento County library system were giving away 90,000 free at-home rapid testing kits on a first come-first serve basis. Those tests were gone in matter of hours.
Dr. Kasirye says that while the number of hospitalizations across the state have been steadily increasing, the number of ICU hospitalizations and deaths have stayed about the same. The most up to date amount of daily recorded case rates in the county is 83.7 per 100,000. The highest spike following the 2020 holiday season was a little over 63 per 100,000.